


forming orange

by katebishoop



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 4+1, 4+1 Things, 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkward Conversations, Bonding, Canon Compliant, Conversations, Friendship, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hunk just wants to be everyone's friend, Keith (Voltron)-centric, M/M, POV Hunk (Voltron), Team as Family, background sheith towards the end, one-sided heith if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 08:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11779596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katebishoop/pseuds/katebishoop
Summary: Four times that Hunk learned something new about Keith, and one time he already knew.





	forming orange

**Author's Note:**

> note: I love hunk and I love writing from hunk's pov. and I love writing Keith/sheith from outside povs, so there you go

Hunk had never met Keith before Shiro had crashed landed on Earth. He'd seen him in the halls, usually from behind, as Lance grumbled about the "cocky jerk with a mullet." He heard from his friend that he was arrogant, standoff-ish, a total a-hole. That it was that guys mission to ruin Lance's life.  
  
He had taken that as an exaggeration. And now, knowing Keith even for this short period of time, Lance's qualms we're pretty much unfounded.  
  
Keith was a quiet, loner type. He seemed comfortable talking with Shiro and that's about it. Lance wouldn't accept it, despite the obviousness, but clearly, they knew each other from before. They were close.  
  
Keith also didn't seem to mean Lance any mind. At least, not until Lance baited him into something.  
  
To him, Keith seemed like someone always with their guard up, constantly on the defensive. He was slowly coming out of his shell, just a little bit. He wondered how long it took him to warm up to Shiro, however long ago that was.  
  
And Hunk, he was a pretty a friendly guy. And he liked Keith, and he wanted to be Keith's friend, not just a Voltron co-pilot.  
  
Hunk soon figured out that flat out questions would get flat out answers.  
  
_"I really miss donuts. And kebab. And everything really. What's favorite food?"  
  
"Rice."  
  
"I really love Yellow but my favorite color is more like orange, like a sunset. What's your favorite color?"  
  
"Red."  
  
"I miss my dog, Mitzi. Hey, did you ever have any pets?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Ever?"  
  
"Never."  
_  
Even the simplest of questions to Keith made him close up like he was under interrogation.  
  
Hunk had learned the hard way that getting to know more about Keith, to get him to open up, was a process that he really didn't have any control over.

* * *

Time was weird in the Castle. It was made even more difficult with training and random attacks from the Galra. Everyone kept their own schedules mostly when there wasn't really much to do.  
  
But Hunk spent most of his time in the kitchen. He prepared food for everyone with neat little labels.  
  
Keith rarely took his.  
  
And when he woke one morning to find one again the dinner he left for Keith uneaten, he had to get to the bottom of it.  
  
He knew, in theory, that he's seen Keith eat before. But he can't recall a time - other than that food fight - where he saw Keith eat.  
  
'Human being' and 'not eating' together were never good signs to Hunk.  
  
He had mentioned it to Shiro, because if anyone knew Keith it was him. He had had this far away look in his eye when Hunk had told him, and with a resigned look told him that Keith was fine.  
  
Yeah, Hunk wasn't buying it. Not from the reaction Shiro had.  
  
Things were crazy, but he was finally able to find Keith in the training room - he hadn't shown up for dinner, it was one of the rare occasions where they all ate together in the lounge - hacking away at the gladiator.  
  
Hunk stood there for a while. Keith fought like he was dancing, and it was mesmerizing.  
  
"End training sequence," Keith said when he noticed Hunk standing there.  
  
"Do you need something?" Keith asked, wiping some sweat from his forehead with the bottom of his shirt. Hunk caught a glimpse of a scar on Keith's stomach, but he knew better than to ask.  
  
"Uh yeah." Hunk shook himself from his distraction. "I brought you food. You missed dinner."  
  
Keith looked surprised. "Oh." He said. "Thanks Hunk, but I already ate today."  
  
Hunk snorted. "Dude I've been in the kitchen all day unless you have some secret stash I don't know about, you haven't come by for dinner. You haven't eaten since lunch, and that was vargas ago."  
  
"I ate Hunk. I'm fine."  
  
"You weren't around for breakfast either-"  
  
"Hunk." Keith placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know you're just looking out for me but. I already ate once today, that's all I need."  
  
Hunk blinked at him. "What."  
  
"I ate a lunch. I'm good until the next one."  
  
"Wait- _what_?" Hunk shook Keith off his shoulder. "You're telling me you only eat once a day? Why the _quiznak_ would you do that?"  
  
Keith looked away, and for a second he thought maybe he pushed too hard. But he should push! This was food they were talking about!  
  
"I'm used to it, okay?" Keith shrugged, still not looking at him. "My body's used to it. It's habit now."  
  
He could see from Keith's body language that this wasn't something he particularly wanted to talk about, but Hunk ventured just a bit, because where they were now was farther than they'd ever got.  
  
"Oh, is that just something you picked up in the desert then?" Hunk asked. Because that made some sense. Keith was alone out there for a long time, and that little shack didn't have a refrigerator. Or power really.  
  
Keith scratched the back of his neck. "Not quite."  
  
Hunk's brain went white.  
  
He'd just asked a question and wasn't given a dismissive answer. Was it vague? _Yes_. But was it inviting? _Yes_.  
  
"But surely at the Garrison..." Hunk's words trickled out.  
  
"Just from growing up... bouncing from place to place..." Keith began, and Hunk could barely believe it. "Meals were spotty. Whichever foster-" Keith caught himself, but it was too late. He had to steel himself to keep going. "Whatever foster home I'd be in would be different, and the changes frequent. I found if I just ate a good amount around the same time, I'd be good."  
  
Foster home.  
  
That explained so much about Keith, those two words.  
  
"Shiro tried to help me break the habit at the Garrison. He basically did want you're doing now." Keith said, with narrowed eyes that didn't match the hint of fondness in his voice. "And it worked for a while..."  
  
And then Kerberos happened. And then "pilot error" happened.  
  
Hunk twiddled his things along the edge of the plate, sticking it out a little.  
  
"Well, you can break that habit again, you know?" Hunk said. "I have no idea how the goo is made, but there seems to be an unsettling infinite supply."  
  
Keith snorted. "Thanks Hunk. But I think I rather stick with it. Last time I tried and went without food I almost-"  
  
Keith stopped himself, looking like a deer in headlights.  
  
Two things came to Hunk's mind.  
  
One: Keith was comfortable enough talking to him for a moment there that he forgot to keep his walls up.  
  
Two: Keith had almost died of starvation.  
  
"You, _what_?"  
  
Keith huffed, annoyed. Hunk thought the way his eyebrows scrunched up was kind of cute - but he pushed that thought aside.  
  
"Look - it's just better for survival purposes to go with less food." Keith said, and Hunk had never heard anything more blasphemous. "I can go longer without food than most, but after that brief change it was- it was harder to bounce back."  
  
"The desert then." Hunk said, softly, coming to an understanding. "After you got booted from the Garrison."  
  
Keith sighed. "Hunk, I appreciate everything but- I'm fine." He didn't look fine, not anymore. "I'm going to hit the showers."  
  
Hunk watched him go, and then turned his attention back to the now cold plate in his hands.  
  
Hunk got the vibe that Keith wasn't used to more than just Shiro caring about him, and well. That was going to change because he was part of Hunk's family now.  
  
And Hunk took care of his own.  
  
(Around noon each day now, if Keith opened the fridge, he'd find a plate with him name on it, piled high with things Hunk had made the night before. If it was going to be one meal a day, then it was going to be a huge, damn good meal).

* * *

"Hey Pidge." Lance asked one day as they all hung out on the bridge. Coran was cleaning the lounge, and they had all ran away to avoid helping. "Is there a way you can figure out what day is it on Earth?"  
  
Pidge pushed up her glasses and got to work. "Shiro crashed landed on Monday, September second. We left Earth on the third." She pulled up a chart of the Earth around the sun. "Now, if we amplify the signal we can get a shot of our solar system - it'll still be grainy though." She brought up another chart and overlayed the two. "Judging by the distance, I'd say we've been gone around two months. I can't get an exact date, but it's probably November by now."  
  
"Oh Quiznak!" Lance exclaimed. "We missed _Halloween_!"  
  
Allura leaned in, curious. "What is... Halloween?"  
  
"It's this holiday where people dress up in costumes and pull pranks and get free candy!"  
  
"And satanic rituals." Pidge supplied.  
  
"What is a... satanic?" Allura asked.  
  
Hunk pat the Princess on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it."  
  
"Hey, this means we also missed your birthday, Keith." Shiro said.  
  
Everyone went still.  
  
Shiro usually never revealed any personal information, about himself or Keith. But he just did! So freely! So _nonchalantly_!  
  
Keith had this look of betrayal across his face.  
  
"Your birthday?" Lance said, nearly tumbling over. "Wow someone's a _baby_. You're barely older than Pidge then."  
  
"Hey!" Pidge punched Lance's arm.  
  
But oh, Hunk knew enough about Keith to know the look he was giving Lance now. It's the look Keith makes when he knows he's already won.  
  
"I just turned nineteen, Lance." Keith said.  
  
They all looked at him for a moment, all in shock except Allura who didn't really know what that meant, and Shiro, who was biting back laughter.  
  
"You what?" Lance yelled. "You can't be that old! I just turned seventeen! We were at the same class at the Garrison!" Something dawned on Lance, and quiznak, Hunk wished he wasn't about to open his mouth. "We're you held back and a _dropout_?"  
  
Keith's glare was sharper than his knife. "You realize that you can enlist in the Garrison at any age, right?"  
  
"And you would not believe how much convincing he took." Shiro said, and Keith elbowed him.  
  
"Wait, you two knew each other _before_ the-?"  
  
"So, what day was your birthday then, Keith?" Pidge cut in. Bless her soul. "We should probably keep a calendar now so that we don't miss anyone else's."  
  
"I don't know." Keith deadpanned.  
  
Shiro snorted. "It's October twenty-third."  
  
"Technically."  
  
"It's on your official documents, you just gotta roll with it."  
  
"Yes, that a social worker plucked out of the blue-"  
  
"Uh, guys?" Pidge asked. They were all staring at the two of them again. These weird anomalies. "So..."  
  
"Keith doesn't know when his birthday is, exactly." Shiro said, and Keith glared at him. "He wasn't born in a hospital, so they just picked a date."  
  
Hunk didn't need to ask who "they" was. Social worker, foster care. That's all the information Hunk needed to piece it together.  
  
"What about you then, Shiro?" Keith asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "When's your birthday then?"  
  
"Not this year." Shiro said, proudly. "Got a while to go. I'm only six and a quarter."  
  
"What the quiznak." Hunk blurted out. Hunk couldn't take this anymore. "You guys-"  
  
"Shiro's twenty five." Keith stressed, rolling his eyes. "He's a leap year baby."  
  
"No way!"  
  
"What is a... leap year?"  
  
Hunk tuned out everyone else's chattering and focused on Keith and Shiro.  
  
They had a whole conversation just with their eyes, their shoulders. Hunk saw friend betrayal and fondness pass between them.  
  
How could Keith be so closed off to some but an open book to others? Or in this case, just one other.

* * *

"Maybe we shouldn't have bought a cow." Lance said. "No offense Kaltenecker."  
  
"It was free with purchase!" Pidge exclaimed. "And this we can't hook up the game, it's the only useful thing we bought."  
  
"Yeah, and think of all the food we could make!" Hunk said, twirling the bucket he was holding. "We can make ice cream and pudding and yogurt and cake and I could even make some quiches with those alien bird eggs we found-"  
  
"Hunk, you're forgetting the problem here." Lance cut in. "None of us know how to milk a cow."  
  
"It can't be that hard, can it?" Hunk shrugged.  
  
It was that hard. It was very, very hard. Kaltenecker was squealing, and Lance got a hoof to the forehead.  
  
"What are you guys doing?" Hunk looked up to see Keith. "I heard the cow practically screaming from down the hall. What are you, butchering it?"  
  
"For your information, mullet," Lance said, rubbing the spot where Kaltenecker had kicked him. "We're milking him."  
  
"It sounds like you're torturing it." Keith said. "Do any of you know what you're doing?"  
  
"Nope." Pidge said. "And don't call him an 'it.'"  
  
Keith sighed, exasperated. "First of all, it has udders. It makes milk. It is a _she_." Keith grabbed the bucket from Hunk's hands. "This is how you milk a cow."  
  
Of all the times that Keith's surprised him, this has got to be the strangest.  
  
"How do you-"  
  
"Lived on a farm for a couple of months." Keith said. "Picked up a few things."  
  
Hunk couldn't take his eyes off Keith's hands, working methodically, with muscle memory.  
  
"There." Keith said, pulling back to reveal a full bucket of milk. "You guys realize that she's only going to produce milk for a few months right? Cows only do so for about ten months after birth."  
  
The three of them nodded at Keith, dumbfounded.  
  
"And that she's going to need to be milked twice a day, every single day?" Keith stressed. "And that I'm not going to do it for you?"  
  
"You know, I think I hear my mother calling." Lance said.  
  
"I think I hear his mother too." Pidge said, and then they were both gone.  
  
Keith turned to Hunk.  
  
Hunk gave him a small bow. "Oh, teach me the art of milking, oh great cow-si."  
  
Keith snorted, but scooted over so Hunk could reach the udders.  
  
Keith was a pretty good teacher. He was patient, insistent, and both reprimanding and rewarding when he needed to be.  
  
But despite his insistence that the cow wasn't his job, and that he had taught Hunk to do it, Keith never failed to milk Kaltenecker every twelve hours or so.  
  
(Keith shrugged when Hunk had asked him about. "It's relaxing." Keith said. "Besides, Kaltenecker is hilarious.")

* * *

Keith's Galran heritage had been a huge bombshell that had been easily accepted by some more than others.  
  
Hunk tackled the issue the same way he'd always tackled Keith: through blind acceptance, food, and good natured humor.  
  
Despite all his joking, he knew Keith didn't just "turn Galra." Nothing about Keith had changed.  
  
Except now Keith's knife turned into a really cool sword.  
  
Hunk was afraid of the Galra, but not of Keith. But sometimes Keith blurred those lines.  
  
Keith's fighting had always been mesmerizing, like a hypnosis wheel. But now? Now? As Keith raged in the battle, his bayard in one hand and his Galran blade in the other? Hacking at foes, with fire in his eyes and a warrior's cry from his mouth?  
  
It was inhuman.  
  
Hunk gaped at him, his own bayard slack in his hands. He'd never seen anything like this, like Keith.  
  
When all the soldiers near them were down, Keith finally saw Hunk staring.  
  
"Ambidextrous." Keith shrugged, and then made his way down the hall.  
  
That wasn't the question on Hunk's mind though. The question was just: _how the hell are you even real?_

* * *

There were a lot of things that Hunk didn't know about Keith. They'd grown closer in the four months since leaving Earth. And Hunk realized he doesn't need to know everything. Some things are better left to themselves.  
  
But some things are clear as day.

 _"No. I'm going to find him. Shiro was the one person who never gave up on me. I won't give up on him."_  
  
There's still so much mystery surrounding them. But none of it is hidden per se, it's not a secret. It's just private; it's there's.  
  
He saw it in their interactions. He saw it in Keith's mourning, his unrelenting belief that Shiro was alive. He saw it in when they finally found Shiro.  
  
Hunk wasn't surprised then. He didn't need to ask.  
  
When it came to Shiro, Keith was an open book.

And when Keith was ready, he'd open that book up to the rest of them.

**Author's Note:**

> the whole one-meal a day thing was from like a bunch of different weird youtube videos I watched. it's weird which makes it a keith thing


End file.
